


The Bakery

by KireinaAme



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bakery, Drabble, Fluff, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-29
Updated: 2017-06-29
Packaged: 2018-11-20 21:24:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11343456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KireinaAme/pseuds/KireinaAme
Summary: Natsuya hadn’t been sure if he believed in love. Friends and family always told him ‘you’ll know you’re in love when it happens’ and ‘you can’t force it if it’s not there.’ So he figured they were right and it just hadn’t happened yet.What no one warned him about was how fast that could happen and how you might not be prepared for it.





	The Bakery

**Author's Note:**

> A drabble request from tumblr, this is my first time writing this pairing!

Natsuya hadn’t been sure if he believed in love. Not that he didn’t try or hadn’t felt deep affection for past lovers, of course. He did give them all his extra time, attention, and felt pretty close to them. But he didn’t think those things alone counted as being in love. Friends and family always told him ‘you’ll know you’re in love when it happens’ and ‘you can’t force it if it’s not there.’ So he figured they were right and it just hadn’t happened yet.

What no one warned him about was how fast that could happen and how you might not be prepared for it.

He found himself visiting a bakery shop for a coworker and that’s where it happened. He found the family-owned business located within a large, multi-story brick structure in an older part of town. The skinny shop took up little room in the entire building, as it was nestled between a bookstore and a high-end boutique. As unassuming as it seemed on the outside, once you stepped over the threshold you were hit with smell of heavenly ambrosia covered in buttercream frosting.

He’d be lying if he said his mouth hadn’t watered a little, despite not being there to purchase something for himself.

A young man stood behind the counter, clad in a full body, white apron with the shop’s logo on the front and splattered with a little frosting and flour. His pale lavender hair was pulled back into a sloppy and rushed ponytail, the majority of it falling around his face and into his eyes in disarray. For as coincidental as his appearance seemed, there was something attractive and alluring in the comfort and ease of it.

And that’s when he looked up. Natsuya was practically frozen in place at the sight of pale hazel – no, wait – green eyes. They were gentle, bright and he swore that everything about this man was perfect, he was sure of it.

Oh wait, was he saying something?

“Sir? Did you need some help?” the man repeated with a smile, his head tilted down towards his chest.

“Um…”

Not the most articulate, he confessed to himself. He swallowed, tugged at the tie around his neck, and tried again.

“I mean, yes. Yes, I need to place an order for a cake. There’s a party coming up for a coworker’s retirement and I’ve been entrusted with the cake, I’m afraid.”

“Oh?” the young man grinned, one hand going up to twist at a tendril of hair. “And why are you afraid?”

“Because I don’t know the first thing about cakes or what everyone else in the office even eats… So I reject all responsibility for whatever I show up with and place myself in your care.” Natsuya grinned and leaned on the counter, just a fraction closer to the cute man standing behind it. _Much smoother_ , he padded himself on the back.

The man chuckled politely behind his fist and grabbed a wet clothe from somewhere behind the counter. Had Natsuya not been so distracted by the beautiful sound of his laughter, he wouldn’t have been so caught off guard when his hand was suddenly lifted right off the countertop. Natsuya stumbled for just a moment to regain his footing and not go face-first into the counter like a clumsy teenager and his face lit up in embarrassment.

“Oh, I’m sorry for startling you,” the man apologized with a pat on Natsuya’s hand, still held in his own. “You just leaned directly into a little buttercream on the counter and I didn’t want it getting into the sleeve of your suit, what with you dressed all dapper like that.”

As the man gently cleaned Natsuya’s hand of the cream, holding his hands tenderly as if they were not perfect strangers, there was a warm feeling spreading through Natsuya’s chest and words left his mouth before he could help himself.

“What’s your name?”

The man finished his cleaning and placed the clothe back into its unknown place behind the counter but did not release Natsuya’s hand. With a coy smile and a tap on his small nametag at the top of the apron, the employee chuckled once again. “I’m Nao. And you?”

“I’m Natsuya”

He was pretty sure that’s when he felt the first pangs of love, he was sure of it.


End file.
